


Tony's Hulk

by IsisKitsune



Series: Prompt Fics [27]
Category: Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-26
Updated: 2012-12-26
Packaged: 2017-11-22 13:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsisKitsune/pseuds/IsisKitsune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"They don't want to make Tony feel bad about his body or anything, but someone just can't make themself feel comfortable with the arc reactor's constant reminder of</i> omg there's a gigantic hole right there where your heart is."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tony's Hulk

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [Prompt](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/11065.html?thread=25184057)
> 
> ***Please if you can think of any other tags that need adding tell me T.T I couldn't think of them at the time of posting.

When Tony had tapped the arc on the carrier, Bruce’s mind was still so scattered between the search and what Tony had said about his own ‘arc’ to do more than wince at the metallic click. Later, they got past the formalities of Tony always keeping it covered while the Avengers were around. Bruce had expected the man to leave the damn thing out as a ‘here I am!’ beacon for all to see but he’d lost that train of thought the moment the man had glanced down one day and realized a white shirt was just too thin to keep the light snuffled and pulled on another shirt. Bruce had even called him out on it, but Tony just smirked and claimed something about everyone would be so enamored with it that he wouldn’t get any attention. It took a month before Tony had either slipped or let his defenses down. Either way Bruce’s eyes were instantly drawn to the completely uncovered glow in the center of his chest…

“Oh, hey Bruce. Morning,” Tony smiled, sweat laden hair hanging into his eyes as he turned over the piece of machinery he’d been working on.

“It’s 5 in the afternoon Tony.”

“Oh, well, evenin’ then,” Tony dismissed the time and took a deep breath and he grabbed a bottle of water to try to cool back down. “So what brings you here?”

“Steve’s in ‘mom’ mode. He sent me to tell you that you missed two meals and dinner is ready in 10. He also mentioned he’s probably likely to start fighting with you and forget all about dinner if he came himself,” Bruce shrugged at Tony’s raised brow before they both chuckled. Bruce’s eyes kept flitting to the spider web of scars and veins leading down to that ever present circle of light.

Tony picked up on it instantly, “Wanna take a look at it?”

“I’m more worried about the dimensions of the casing,” Bruce’s mouth and brain were starting to take after Tony’s apparently, because he just blurted that out without thinking first. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-“

“Non-sense!” Tony beamed at him while stepping closer, wiping his hands clean before bringing up a 3D image of the housing without his chest. Bruce’s training in neutral expressions and reactions was the only thing keeping the utterly mortified look off his face. “There she is, isn’t she a beaut?”

Bruce nodded, because that’s what Tony wanted, and just tried to keep the horror out of his eyes as he continued to skim over the images and dimensions before looking at Tony’s chest again. Sternum, Ribs, not to mention chest wall, lungs… Heart. How did the man breathe without causing himself pain? How could he even move, bend, lift? It just, didn’t seem possible. There had to be pain. There were no other options. The press of clipped ribs against the housing even as Tony shifted his torso to smiling at him. The expanding of constricted/distorted lungs when he laughed or yelled, though the man never seemed to yell, that could be the reason. Just the beating of his nearly useless heart, it had to be pressed into his lung or against the back of his ribs or even spine and that was only if the casing itself wasn’t against it, stabbing into it constantly.

Bones, flesh, muscle, those were all meant for movement. Metal, no not the way a human body could. How did the man live with it?

Bruce smirked, forced, as Tony just continued to beam and ramble. “Thank you, but I really need to get back to Cap before he deems me MIA. Remember, dinner in 10. It might be best if you made an appearance.”

“Oh, right, food. Yeah. Let me just get washed up, I’ll be right there.”

Bruce’s smiled fell the moment he hit the doors, out of sight from the scrambling genius. He felt his eyes trying to well up. He’s been wrong. This whole time he’s thought Tony was telling him that the Hulk was his arc reactor… Now he realized that the arc was Tony’s Hulk.


End file.
